Oscar Piastri reflected on his opening-lap incident with George Russell, the repercussions of not pitting under the VSC, and the pace he demonstrated on an H-M one-stopper following his underwhelming eighth-place finish at the 2026 Spanish GP.
In Saturday’s qualifying, the Australian needed an extra set of softs to guarantee he made it through Q2. That left him as the only frontrunner to bolt on a used set of C4 tyres for his first run in Q3.
On his second run on the new tyres, Piastri made a mistake early in the lap. While teammate Lando Norris snatched the pole position at Madring, he only managed to set the seventh-fastest time.
Piastri’s race was compromised on the first lap when contact with Russell damaged his front wing and spoilt the balance of his MCL40 for the remainder of the Grand Prix.
Having started on the hardest compound, the 25-year-old didn’t stop under the VSC on Lap 15 and ran a long opening stint in the hopes of a late intervention. But no more incidents came, forcing him to make a pit stop under full racing conditions at the end of Lap 42.
The time lost meant he came out in traffic, and although he pulled off one of the four overtakes on Sunday—picking off Arvid Lindblad—Piastri could not find a way past the Alpine of Franco Colapinto late on.
The nine-time race winner ultimately came home in P8, a staggering 90.750 seconds behind Norris, who secured his fifth podium of the season.
Piastri on his Lap 1 clash with Russell and receiving the black-and-white flag
Speaking in the print media pen afterwards, Oscar Piastri commented on how the contact with Russell and the loss of three places on the first lap of the 2026 Spanish GP had undermined his momentum from the very beginning.
“Yeah, it was just a tough afternoon from literally the start. From there on the rest of the race was very compromised obviously with some of the damage and the track position mainly. So, that made things very tricky.”
Asked to discuss how the collision had come about, Piastri stated that he had nowhere to go when the Mercedes ducked across the track toward the barriers. He added that Russell hitting the brakes thereafter led to both cars bumping into each other.
“Well, I mean I was alongside, and he just kept squeezing me to the wall. Then I hit the brakes and kind of avoided him but amongst all that he hit the brakes, everyone hit the brakes, and we kind of got stuck together and everything.
“But yeah, I was just expecting a bit more space, and obviously, between a car and a wall you can’t make any more space. So, that was tricky.”
In terms of him receiving a black-and-white flag for exceeding track limits, the Australian also explained why it was easy to overstep at a circuit like Madring and difficult to keep the car within the white lines.
“It was tricky, yes, but on a track like this, you’re always searching for a bit of clean air in the high-speed corners. And with no kerb or no wall on the inside of some of the corners, it’s very easy to just go a little bit too far.”
Piastri talks about his pace and the consequences of not pitting under the VSC at the 2026 Spanish GP
With regard to his 42-lap stint on the hard tyres at the 2026 Spanish GP and whether the medium compound was equally robust, Oscar Piastri conceded that his pace in clean air was quite solid. At the same time, he pointed out how difficult it was to compensate for the loss of time stemming from the decision to not box under the VSC.
The six-time F1 polesitter also lamented getting stuck in a train of cars after switching to the medium compound. Furthermore, he claimed that the yellow-walled tyres were only good enough for a single lap and that they fell away rapidly afterwards.
“Yeah, I mean, I think the pace in clean air on the hard was pretty good to be honest.
“But yeah, we were trying to make up the pit loss of the VSC to the guys who pitted, and then once I got to the back of Lawson, I was kind of stuck again.
“So, that was painful, and then when we pitted onto the medium, we pitted into a four-car train.
“So, that wasn’t great, and the medium tyre was just awful. It was good for literally a lap, and then it was pretty terrible. So, yeah, a lot of things to try and improve.”
